Language use and maintenance among the Moroccan minority in Britain

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate language use among a relatively young immigrant community in Britain with a view to finding out what role English plays in their lives, whether they still use their languages of origin, and what are the reasons for their particular language behaviour. Language use and maintenance in an immigrant minority setting is an important area of investigation if one is to understand some of the factors involved in the community's integration process, or the lack of it, in general, and to appreciate the role of language for integration in particular. Minority communities adopt a number of linguistic strategies for communication among themselves and their wider community. In most cases, these linguistic strategies are dictated by both the social and linguistic environment the immigrant minority finds itself living in.
The thesis first looks at the sociolinguistic situation of Morocco in order to establish the linguistic background of this community. It then considers the British Moroccans from a socio-economic perspective with a view to identifying factors that may influence language shift behaviour. The empirical part of the thesis is concerned with establishing linguistic as well as non-linguistic
determinants of language maintenance such as those that influence language choice, code-switching, attitudes and use of language-specific media. The study has two main hypotheses: first, the Moroccan community in Britain is undergoing a generational language shift, and second, typical Moroccan sociolinguistic patterns are reflected in the language use of Moroccan speakers in Britain as well.
While the former hypothesis has, on the whole, proved correct, the latter did not hold true.